Sky Our Grandfather

Moon Our Grandmother

Earth Our Mother

I Am Thankful

We Love Each Other

We Are Grateful

We are grateful.

  Very often amongst us people in a hard scrabble to exist we'll say TahTanka, thank you, I appreciate you, I appreciate what you have done.  When it comes to the preservation of culture even taking the time to appreciate seems inadequate.  I don't know if that's just a me thing.  But the preservation of culture makes me feel love and passion.  To some, things probably look like little projects but to lovers of culture those same little projects mean the world.

  My pre-food-filled stomach had me glued to old fashioned Country Store goodies and BAAaacon!  My mind was like, wait, what?  Bacon?  Bacon.

  I was still savoring the smile I received when I got into the Cherohala Visitor's Center.  And, that the State name of Tennessee comes from 

My phone totally died like two days into the camp trip!  Fortunately, back at an afternoon desk at a Knoxville park, I found my handwritten notes.

Tellico Plains, TN

  Lisa Frerichs grew up in Athens, Tennessee but moved to Tellico Plains twenty-five years ago.  We joke about coming by wagon or not coming by wagon.  "I came here by marriage," she smiles and says.  "But there's no place I'd rather be."

  Outside is bright and homey even for a traveler.  It's so different from a crowded subway in a city I need to let my feet feel being here.  The guide maps cartoon place, and then you get there and you get to find the life of the place.

 Just around the corner from a trafficky press of cars, trucks, and RV's food-finding and re-supplying and maintaining vehicles.  The chance to connect with calm and pedestrian.

  Always for me in place the Native Americans beckon.  My family has Indian in us and the stories of our relatives in the West Virginia area have only deepened my awareness of how much we have been humans with different ways co-existing in same place.

  At Panther Creek I'd allowed myself to first wade in the actual creek, then imagine our great, great, great (etc.) "Chief White Eyes" and his daughter "Emily" there, in nature, making me brave enough to wade deeper, see trout-looking rocks under the water, pick a water stick to help me balance, run hands over grooves in rocks where the water's flow must have been at work for a very long time.

  Everywhere in America are the remnants of a more natural existence.  And very often emblems of peoples who considered themselves both individuals and part of something-- family, church, locale, group and place.  We've left place marker and work-in-progress.  And sometimes we have abandoned.  But mostly we've been in a long term relationship with our places.

  Inside I confess to having heard many times about what to do in a bear encounter, but that still not making me feel sure of myself around bears.  Lisa nods gently and says, "It is a possibility you could run into one." I had seen a little one already this summer.  Darker in color than even the shady spots in the forest on both sides of gravel road.  The stuffed bears inside the Visitor's Center (which have been there since it opened) kind of anchor the room.  They aren't bears which have been stuffed, they are incredible, large stuffed animal bears.  I settle into a Black Bear Safety Interpretive Display.

Tellico Plains, 2024

 

  A video/DVD plays atop the display.  Be "Bear Smart" we are advised.  In the production there is a ranger and some others relaying information about black bears.  And they repeatedly call to mind that nature is really their territory.  And that the Forest Service has been mediating between them and us furless-types.  An author of Bears We've Met, Joel Zachary, goes more into depth about the animals.  And, though we need to be aware of our surroundings (like in a city), and minimize attracting smells (like food), there is a long record of interactions between us all, and usually making noise in a non-threatening way is enough to let the bears know...this is a people thing.